Rail and clip for sliding door cabinets



Aug. 6, 1957 M. s. PALMER 2,801,438

RAIL AND CL P FOR SLIDING DOOR CABINETS Filed May 20, 1954 FIG. 5"

INVENTOR.

MICHAEL s. PALMER United States Patent 6 RAIL AND CLIP FOR SLIDING DOOR CABINETS Michael S. Palmer, Detroit, Mich., assignor to Ideal Cabinet Corp., Deerfield, III., a corporation of Illinois Application May 20, 1954, Serial No. 431,137

2 Claims. (CI. 16-87) This invention relates to sliding door cabinets.

In the manufacture of sliding door cabinets, particular'ly those where the doors are horizontally slidable, it has been common to provide tracks at the upper and lower edges of the cabinet to support the slidable door panels. In this type of construction, the lower track, which opens upwardly, frequently becomes clogged with dirt and grease. Thus, the lower track, when dirty, tends to restrict the easy sliding movement of the door panels. Moreover, where these tracks are used in food storage or medicine cabinets, the collection of dirt by the tracks forms an unsanitary nuisance which is difficult to keep clean.

Accordingly, it is an object of my invention to eliminate the lower door track and provide a new upper track which is capable of supporting the weight of the entire door panel and will permit easy sliding of such panel.

It is a further object of my invention to eliminate the lower door track and to suspend the slidable doors at the top thereof by means of a novel track and door support clip arrangement.

An additional object of my invention is to provide a suspension support rail for slidable doors wherein the door support portions of the rail are hidden from view and are protected against the accumulation of dirt.

Another object of my invention is to provide a unitary door support clip having means to fit within and freely slide within a support rail and in addition having means to grasp and connect with a door panel to support the entire weight of said panel.

Yet a further object of my invention is to provide a suspension rail for sliding door panels and support clips to which the panels are connected, but wherein the coacting portions of the rail and clips are concealed from view and wherein the clips are protected against the accumulation of dirt.

Still another object of my invention is to provide sliding door panel clips which are permanently fastened to said panels but which are adapted to be removably and slidably connected to a support rail and wherein such rail is so formed as to support two door panels with their support clips so that the panels may be slid in parallelism with one another.

These and other objects and advantages of my invention will become apparent from the following description:

In the accompanying drawings forming a part of the specification and showing one preferred form of the invention:

Figure l is a pictorial illustration of a complete sliding door cabinet.

Figure 2 is a cross-sectional View taken on line 22 of Figure 1.

Figure 3 shows a perspective view of the support rail.

Figure 4 illustrates a perspective View of a door panel support clip attached to a cut-away segment of a door panel.

Figure 5 shows a side view of the support clip, and

18%,438 Patented Aug. 6, 1957 ice Figure 6 is a front view of the support clip taken in the direction of arrow 6 on Figure 5.

In Figure 1, there is shown a cabinet 10 having a top member 11, side members 12 and 13 and a base 14 which is entirely devoid of channels or other dirt catching obstructions. The above members forming the cabinet may be assembled together by means of welding or other such suitable means.

Within the cabinet are shelves 15 and 16 which are adapted to support various articles stored therein. These shelves may be adjustably or permanently secured within the cabinet by any convenient means. Sincethese shelves form no part of the present invention, further desciiption thereof is deemed unnecessary.

Fastened to the top cabinet member 11 is a U-shaped panel supporting rail 17. As seen in Figure 2, the web 13 of this rail is abutted against the underside of the top cabinet member and is held in position by welding, riveting, screws, or the like. v

Depending from the web 18 are rail legs 19 and 20, which legs each terminate in upwardly bent U-channels 21 and 22. It is within these channels that the door panel support clips, tobe described hereinafter, are slidably mounted.

The front of the cabinet is closed by a pair of sliding door panels 23 and 24. In the drawings, these panels are illustrated as being formed of glass. However, wood, metal, or plastic panels would also be satisfactory for this purpose.

In order to slidably suspend the door panels, clips 25 are provided. As illustrated in Figures 4 to 6, these clips comprise a sheet of metal or the like, having a top horizontal S-shaped bend which includes a channel 26. This channel 26 fits into the rail channels 21 and 22.

Integral with the above S-shaped bend is a wall 27, the lower end of which is bent to form a flange 28 parallel to the S-shaped bend. Fro-m this flange there extends a leg 29. In addition to leg 29, a second leg 30 is obtained by striking out a portion of wall 27 at 31 and bending this portion until it is substantially parallel to leg 29.

As can be seen in Figure 4, the legs 29 and 30 are so spaced that they may tightly grasp the edge of the door panel which is inserted between them. These clips may then be permanently secured to said door panels by any conventional fastening means.

Two or more of the above clips may be provided on each door panel as the weight of the panel may require.

In use, the door panel is totally suspended from the top thereof by inserting the clip channel 26 into one of the rail channels. The wall 27 of the clip, the remaining bend 32 of the S-shaped bend, and the flange 28 prevent the clip from being being easily dislodged from the rail.

When it is desirable to remove the doors, as for example, to clean the interior of the cabinet, the doors may be grasped at each side edge thereof and raised until channel 26 is clear of the rail channel. Thereafter, the door may be lowered slightly and removed.

The rail channels are sufficiently spaced apart so that one panel may be suspended from each channel and so that the two panels have sufiicient clearance to slide past one another.

By this construction, the panels are totally suspended from the rail, and bottom guide rails or other similar dirt catching members are eliminated.

This invention may be developed within the scope of the following claims without departing from the essential features of the said invention and it is desired that the specification and drawings be read as being merely illustrative of a practical embodiment of the same and not in a strictly limiting sense.

I claim:

1. In a device of the character described, a horizontal rail having a web and a pair of downwardly depending legs, the ends of each of said legs being bent upwardly towards said web to form a pair of channels with each of said channels being within said rail; a door support clip comprising asingle horizontally disposed S-shaped portion, the upward opening loop of said S-shaped portion being fittable into one of said channels for sliding movement therein, the other loop of the S-shaped portion being integral with a downwardly extending flange, a portion. of said flange being struck-out and bent parallel with the remainder of said flange to form a pair of spaced legs between which a panel may be inserted and secured, said pair of spaced legs being bent from said flange a suflicient distance so that the space between said legs is in substantial vertical alignment with said upwardfacing loop.

2. In a device of the character described, a horizontal rail having a web and a pair of downwardly depending legs, the ends of each of said legs being bent upwardly towards said web to forma pair of channels with each of said channels being within said rail; door support clips each comprising a single horizontally disposed S-shaped portion, the upward opening loop of the S-shaped portion of at least two of said clips being fitted into one of said channels, and one loop of the S-shaped portion of at least two other of said clips being fitted into the other of said channels; each of said clips having the other loop of said S-shaped portion integral with a downwardly extending flange, a portion of said flange being struck-out and bent parallel with the remainder of said flange to form a pair of spaced legs between which a panel may be inserted and secured, said pair of spaced legs being bent from said flange a suflicient distance so that the space between said legs is in substantial vertical alignment with said upwardly opening loop.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 930,348 I Bundy Aug. 10, 1909 940,251 Johnson Nov. 16, 1909 1,071,380 Anderson Aug. 26, 1913 FOREIGN PATENTS 427,965 Great Britain Apr. 30, 1935 

